Busy Cleaning!

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We live in a German house now in the town of Haßfurt. Oddly enough, we don't rent from a German family but a Chinese family! They own a very popular restaurant down the street and an Asian store. We moved in on Saturday and spent all day Saturday and all day Sunday cleaning. And it’s not cleaning as in “spruce it up” or “rearrange our stuff,” and by all day I don’t mean multiple breaks and daydreaming. I mean 12 hours on Saturday and another 8 hours on Sunday of hard-core, no joke, serious elbow grease!


We vacuumed, mopped, scrubbed, and washed every inch from top to bottom. The house has such amazing potential! We are both amazed at the disrepair it has fallen into. The owners have not done much to keep the place inhabitable. Besides the new kitchen (which Andrea is convinced was replaced because it was easier than cleaning/repairing the old one!) the rest of the house is stuck in the 70’s and 80’s: Brass faucets and shower fixtures, wooden bathroom accessories, and painted wallpaper (only to name a few!) Add to it the fact that the owners probably hadn’t cleaned it or repaired anything since they moved in (about 8 years ago) and, well yeah, you get the idea!


We’d like to share with you what we’ve found in our attempt to rid ourselves of the “heebee jeebees” of a dirty house. Letterman-style, this is our…


TOP 14 LIST OF WAYS TO DESTROY YOUR HOUSE

#14: Leave burnt out light bulbs plugged in.

#13: If it’s broken, don’t fix it unless it’s used daily.

#12: If it’s used daily, fix it as quickly and cheaply as possible.

#11: Whatever happens, DO NOT CLEAN IT UP!!

#10: Don’t worry about exposed wiring. Just ignore it.

#9: When moving out, leave tons of crap behind for the tenants to worry about.

#8: Anything you get rid of yourself can be added to the pile of crap accumulating outside.

#7: If guests forget which room is the bathroom, label the door: WC in chalk!

#6: If it’s outside, leave it alone. Including grass, weeds, and trash.

#5: You can clean windows??

#4: Duct tape is a great way to put screens on windows.

#3: Use adhesive plastic hooks for everything.

#2: If you have enough adhesive plastic hooks in a room…stick up at least 2 more.

AND THE #1 WAY TO DESTROY YOUR HOUSE…..

If the bathroom smells because it’s so unbelievably dirty…hang multiple car air fresheners.

Well, we absolutely love the house and it’s location. We also know that with hard work it could be an amazing place!! (OK, a LOT of hard work and even MORE money!!) But it could be great. It already looks better since Romas spent all day vacuuming and mopping and Andrea scrubbed the kitchen and bathrooms. It doesn’t even smell anymore!


Now we’re just waiting on our shipments to arrive so we can finish unpacking and finally, after 2 months of hotels and temporary housing, have someplace to live.

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